Home premium system backup?

[Sven Pran]

My Vista Home premium doesn't offer Complete PC backup, and in any case I am
not so sure I miss that facility?.

What I want is some means to create a CD or DVD from which I can boot my
machine and in case I need it reinstall my Vista with all upgrades that were
applied at the time I made that backup. If that backup includes all my
installed programs at the time so much the better, but backup of my user
data is a separate issue that causes me no problem.

I once experienced a situation with my older XP machine where I had to
reinstall Windows XP from the original recovery CD, after which my machine
entered a long process of installing all the upgrades that had been issued
since my PC was new. That was not "funny".

If Vista (Home premium) offers this facility and I have just overlooked it,
OK. If there exists some (reputable) third party product that offers it, OK.
In any case I should be very grateful for information.

regards Sven

 

[Malke]

My Vista Home premium doesn't offer Complete PC backup, and in any case I
am not so sure I miss that facility?.

What I want is some means to create a CD or DVD from which I can boot my
machine and in case I need it reinstall my Vista with all upgrades that
were applied at the time I made that backup. If that backup includes all
my installed programs at the time so much the better, but backup of my
user data is a separate issue that causes me no problem.

I once experienced a situation with my older XP machine where I had to
reinstall Windows XP from the original recovery CD, after which my machine
entered a long process of installing all the upgrades that had been issued
since my PC was new. That was not "funny".

If Vista (Home premium) offers this facility and I have just overlooked
it, OK. If there exists some (reputable) third party product that offers
it, OK. In any case I should be very grateful for information.

I believe Acronis True Image and an external hard drive should take care of
your needs. There are other imaging programs, like Norton Ghost, but I
prefer Acronis since I don't purchase Symantec products. YMMV.

Malke

 

[Sven Pran]

i would definitely reccomend Acronis True image.

Thanks, I shall look into that.

A possible trouble is what I experienced with Norton Ghost which I used on
my XP machine: Because it was a TRUE image it had the boot disk address as
C: also on the disk copy so when I tried to boot from it (at location E
the boot process would fail.

That is why at this time I'd rather fancy the ability to create a recovery
(bootable) CD or DVD thatt could replace the original recovery CD as being
updated.

regards Sven

 

[Guest]

Thanks, I shall look into that.

A possible trouble is what I experienced with Norton Ghost which I used
on my XP machine: Because it was a TRUE image it had the boot disk
address as C: also on the disk copy so when I tried to boot from it (at
location E the boot process would fail.

That is why at this time I'd rather fancy the ability to create a
recovery (bootable) CD or DVD thatt could replace the original recovery
CD as being updated.

regards Sven

I've often wondered why such a tool (apparently) doesn't exist. Instead
of a recovery disc that takes you back to factory condition, why can't
one simply make a recovery disc (or multiples -- more likely these days)
that simply restores the system to the point in time when that disc was
made?

Bob

 

[Nonny]

I've often wondered why such a tool (apparently) doesn't exist. Instead
of a recovery disc that takes you back to factory condition, why can't
one simply make a recovery disc (or multiples -- more likely these days)
that simply restores the system to the point in time when that disc was
made?

That's what backup programs like Acronis True Image are for.

And what an extra internal hard drive or what an external hard drive
is for.

 

[Guest]

That's what backup programs like Acronis True Image are for.

And what an extra internal hard drive or what an external hard drive
is for.

But you don't need an extra hard drive -- drives that can write DVDs are
nearly ubiquitous these days, why buy something else (other than DVD
blanks, which are quite cheap)? Can ATI create a bootable recovery DVD set?

Bob

 

[Nonny]

But you don't need an extra hard drive -- drives that can write DVDs are
nearly ubiquitous these days, why buy something else (other than DVD
blanks, which are quite cheap)? Can ATI create a bootable recovery DVD set?

While it can create a bootable CD with its program on it, it can't
create a bootable DVD set... if it can, I'm not aware of it.

 

[Sven Pran]

Hey,
I bought Acronis True Image and I bought an external harddisk.
I had ATI make an initial complete backup of my computer to the external
harddisk, and for the disaster situation if my internal harddisk ever
becomes unbootable I had ATI create a bootable CD that will allow me to
restore my system from the external harddisk to a brand new (or completely
reformatted) internal harddisk.

That is all I ask from any backup system.

And BTW: Thanks to those who called my attention to Acronis, it's just
great.

regards Sven